Smaller Protests Greet Trump’s New Executive Order

Timothy A. Clary / AFP / GettyJOEL B. POLLAK7 Mar 2017

Protests at several California airports greeted President Donald Trump’s new executive order suspending travel from terror-prone countries on Monday, but they were smaller and less vociferous than in January, according to multiple news reports.

The new order takes into account some of the criticisms of the first. It does not apply to Iraq; it exempts those who have already been granted entry into the U.S.; and it provides travelers advance notice so that they have time to change plans.

In San Diego, according to local news outlets, “dozens” of travelers gathered at Lindbergh Field to protest the new order, calling it a “Muslim ban,” though — like the first order — it makes no reference to religion. At Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to a report by Southern California Public Radio, volunteer attorneys set up tables to help travelers fight the order, but there were “none of the protests at LAX that had marked the rollout of the president’s original travel ban.”

The San Francisco Chroniclereported that some protesters gathered at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), while the San Jose Mercury Newsreported that the new order still drew criticism from opponents in the broader Bay Area and beyond. However, in California and at other airports across the nation, protests were generally subdued or were entirely absent.

California’s new Attorney General Xavier Becerra claimed that Trump’s new executive order was an admission that the first one was unconstitutional, according to the Los Angeles Times. Whether true or not, it was relatively cold comfort for those who still hope to use nationwide protests of the executive order to spark a so-called “resistance” to the new administration.